Why connected HDTVs are the future
LG launched two broadband-equipped HDTVs this week--the 47-inch 47LH50 and the 50-inch 50PS80. Both televisions boast NetCast Entertainment Access, which provides consumers with the entire Netflix streaming library of more than 12,000 movies and TV episodes.
This LG HDTV streams Netflix content. Are you ready for more?
(Credit: LG)The LG HDTVs released this week require a broadband connection to work with the NetCast Entertainment Access service. To choose a film, users need only to surf through the items and make selections on the right of the screen. They can read movie synopses and rate films.
LG isn't the only company bringing connected HDTVs to store shelves. Toshiba is well on its way to bringing its Regza line of HDTVs into the streaming realm. When the connected HDTVs launch later this year, Toshiba plans to give consumers access to a variety of content, including local weather, top news stores, sports scores, videos, and more. The HDTVs will also be able to access multimedia content stored on a connected PC's hard drive.
Surprised by the sudden uptick in connected HDTVs coming to store shelves? Don't be--it's the future.
It's no coincidence that two prominent companies in the HDTV business are moving to the Web with their products. According to a recent study by market research firm Parks Associates, "2.5 million U.S. and Canadian households are ready to buy an Internet-connected TV." There's just one caveat: demand is that strong only if those connected HDTVs are priced no more than $100 higher than other sets on the market.
That shouldn't be a problem. The two Web-connected LG HDTVs released this week are priced between $1,599 and $1,999 online. That's certainly no more expensive than other comparable HDTVs on the market. It almost ensures that there will be demand for those products.
But 2.5 million households might not seem like the kind of demand companies would require to continue producing Web-enabled HDTVs. It's a strong number, but not one that probably won't drastically change the business anytime soon. But most companies believe consumer demand will increase dramatically over the next few years. And in that time, more connected HDTVs will hit store shelves.
Market analyst The Yankee Group said it expects 50 million connected HDTVs to be purchased by 2013. Ironically, the analysts predict that just 30 million connected Blu-ray players will be in the wild. It expects 11 million digital-media adapters to be in homes.
It's an interesting study that deserves some attention. In essence, a technology that is just in its infancy is expected to beat out two technologies that have a footing in the space. That's no small feat. And it speaks to the allure of connecting to the Web on your HDTV.
The technology is far from perfect. The LG and Toshiba HDTVs won't provide a "true" Web experience. You won't be able to do much more than watch Netflix movies, see YouTube videos, and check your stocks. It's not like hooking a Mac Mini up to your HDTV and enjoying a full online experience.
We also can't forget that your current HDTV isn't obsolete just because it can't connect to the Web. If you want to stream Web content to your HDTV, there are a variety of tools to help you do it. In fact, your Xbox 360, Roku Digital Video Player, TiVo, and PlayStation 3 will do just that. Plus, it's cheaper to simply buy one of those products than to junk your current HDTV for a built-in Web connection.
But in the end, LG and Toshiba are responding to demand. Web-enabled HDTVs are the future because they're convenient, useful, and offered at fair prices. And based on the aforementioned studies, I'm not alone in getting excited to buy one.
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Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
A TV with.
1. A browser(ie,firefox,opera whatever) so we can surf the internet and watch videos and movies on any website we want.
2. Put a qwerty keyboard on the remote so its easy to type.
3. Make it easy to PIP between TV and browser.
Not that many people are willing to make this leap just yet, but with products like http://www.linux.com/news/hardware/desktops/18899-fit-pc2-ubuntu-desktop-in-a-tiny-box hitting the market, it's going to become much more common. While most lower end products won't do the gaming stuff I do with my machine, a lot of people don't require that functionality necessarily. Throw in a standard SMB server (also known as windows with a shared directory) and suddenly all your media is available to anyone who jumps on your wireless network. If you want a computer in your bedroom or your kitchen, or anywhere else everything is centralized, and at the center is a delightfully normal HDTV. Why would I want a stripped down TV manufacturer experience when all the software to do everything I just described is free (ok, so I have to pay for the WoW, yay). There just isn't a lot of value proposition there.
HDTV or not, bringing the web to your digital tv is the way of the future.
As long as you can do it better with a device that plugs into the monitor/HDTV this will be a fad or throw in.
Xbox 360/PS3 or just a PC already offer much greater flexibility for all this web content.
Really all "net" tv offers is another reason to hold a higher price point.
a) everyone doesn't have and won't be able to get an internet connected HDTV for it to make sense to be the "future" - most people don't want to pay more than $600 for a HDTV, so while the day may come where these television drop down in price, they are currently $2000+ and will take at least 5 years for them to come down.
b) connected HDTVs only sound great in theory. Do you remember WebTV? It was a service where for for $9.99 you could see, check, and respond to your email through your television. They were made by companies like Philips, with service from MSN and were sold in electronics stores all around the country. Ultimately they failed because most people who were already paying $25+ for the internet wouldn't want to pay $10 for another service and for people who could pay didn't understand or see the service as useful. The same is true here. Less than 50% of the US has HDTV, even less actually watch HD content through their television. HDTVs will get better and more feature full but the innovation will come through the screen - the color gamut it produces, and the technology used to power them. They've come close to making them as thing as people will care about.
c) cable companies won't allow it. what is to stop cable companies from providing all of the services and widget that samsung, and other companies are providing today. they have millions of people by the balls tied up in triple-play combo packages with rate plans with contracts they can't break out of without paying a fee. if the business gets too big, look for the HDTVs to remain dumb, while the cable companies get smart, and charge an extra fee for access to these applications and the marketplace which under pin them.
d) every manufacturer does it differently. going back to my previous point, when you want to access the internet through a Samsung HDTV, it's a different experience than how you do it through a Sony HDTV, and I'd imagine that every company will implement it differently. There's no reason to expect them to do it all the same when they sell their televisions in different countries, with different standards and there's little money in trying to tweak software for this purpose.
these points are just true. it'll sell a few more televisions, but it won't last. there's a better chance for Comcast, Time Warner, or Cablevision to do that for you.
The real innovation coming to televions and HDTVs which is real is 3D. That's a story I can get behind.
broadbandhdtvs.com and broadbandhdtv.com and hoping that this tvs take off.
That will be the sweetest thing that can happen. :)
3 cheers for lg for making this happen.
Nick
Http://www.broadbandhdtvs.com
- by ydoineedausername June 18, 2009 10:41 AM PDT
- Do these things support DLNA? Kind of pointless if you're limited to strictly web content when Windows 7 will be available soon with the ability to stream over this protocol.
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